Vocational Training Centers (MESEM) are back on the agenda, this time due to corruption investigations, in addition to ongoing debates regarding child labor and workplace fatalities. In an operation conducted across four provinces centered in Mersin, 22 out of 39 detained suspects have been arrested.
The investigation alleges that some MESEM schools incurred public losses exceeding 36 million liras, and that 8 million 749 thousand liras in cash, along with two computers and two color printers, were provided as bribes. It was stated that those arrested include former principals and assistant principals of MESEM schools in Mersin and Silifke.
The MESEM system is based on supporting the wages and insurance premiums of apprentices working in businesses with public funds. At the center of the allegations are the registration of individuals who do not actually work as students, the opening of registrations through fake businesses, and the irregular use of public payments.
ALLEGATIONS OF GHOST ENROLLMENT
Similar allegations have previously surfaced in different cities. In Ceyhan, Adana, it was alleged in 2023 that a school administrator visited businesses to demand payments for excess apprentices appearing in the system; arrests were made in the case, where it was claimed that 2.7 million liras had been collected.
In an indictment prepared in Hazro, Diyarbakır, it was alleged that addresses appearing as businesses in the records were found to be residences, construction sites, or dilapidated shops; one shop was allegedly presented as two businesses using two separate tax plates.
In Kocaeli, the allegation that 22 thousand apprentices were registered to a school in the Kuruçeşme neighborhood during the 2022-2023 period was previously brought to the agenda by CHP Kocaeli Deputy Harun Özgür Yıldızlı. It was reported that 62 more people were detained in a new wave of the same case, while 9 people had been arrested in the previous wave.
DEBATE OVER INSPECTION RESPONSIBILITY
MESEMs have long been defended by the government as a model that strengthens vocational training. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan associated the system with the "Ahi culture" in 2022, and the then-Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer announced that the target of 1 million apprentices had been exceeded that same year.
Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin had also previously defended MESEMs, describing them as "both an economic and moral backbone," and in response to criticisms regarding the risk of workplace accidents, stated, "We cannot give up just because there is a possibility of an accident." Tekin had stated that weekly and bi-weekly inspections were conducted at the centers.
However, Court of Accounts (Sayıştay) reports indicate that payments were made to businesses for students who did not actually perform internships, and point to the responsibility of provincial and district national education directorates in this process. One of the significant aspects of the debate is whether the investigations remain limited to school administrators.
It was reported that school principal Rümeysa Şen, who is being tried while under arrest in the Kuruçeşme case in Kocaeli, said in court, "There is no one from the provincial or district national education directorates in the defendant's chair." Şen's defense also included claims that the 1 million target was reflected to schools as a quota.
The fact that the number of registered students in MESEMs dropped from around 1 million 400 thousand in the spring of 2023 to 715 thousand about a year and a half later is also among the striking data. It is stated that the Ministry has not made a detailed public statement regarding this decline.
With the latest operations, the issues of public loss in MESEMs, ghost student registration, fake businesses, and inspection responsibility have come to the fore once again. Whether the investigations will extend to the Ministry of National Education bureaucracy is seen as one of the most critical questions of the process.
News Source: 12punto
